And now the end is near… my last assignment of year 1 of being a journalist is a blog about the experience of studying multimedia journalism. Jim asked me in an interview what would be my ideal job in ten years time and I replied that I would love to be a political correspondent for one of the broadsheets. Oh how things have changed.

The reason for that change has been multimedia journalism. From my Facebook account to my blog to my pointless tweets there is a big electronic world out there that no journalist can ignore any longer.

I met a journalist who works for The Daily Mail recently and he agrees that the web is where the future lies; we just need to figure out how to make money out of it. I still use Google News since we were introduced to it a few months back and have since passed on my knowledge to some of my drinking buddies who have set up their own accounts.

An Irish DJ died recently and quite unexpectedly and, after a friend sent me a text, I used Google News to get the facts. The worry here is it was all free, news is so much more readily available but no one is paying for it. The world has become a much smaller place and though I’ve really taken to blogging I would love to make some money out of it. The Internet has unleashed an enormous amount of uncertainty about where the future of journalism is heading but I find this prospect rather exciting and hope that by getting into the business now I might have some say in the answer to this puzzle.

It wasn’t all technical; I also honed my interviewing skills for the podcast and my approach strangers in the street skills for the vox pops.

I will not be the type of student to ignore their blog ‘til we come back in October and Jim tells us to blow the dust off and get typing; there shall be a whole summer of theory, speculation and, of course, ranting. All donations accepted.

So today we’ll have a quick look at video links on media websites and we shall begin with a little peek at how they do it over the pond.

With the video link on the top of the home page The New York Times make it very easy to access their online videos. When you get there the page looks very professional and it is a navigating treat, with the main sections listed down the left, pick one and then a large number of videos appear for that link.

Plenty of choice for categories, you want technology? No problem. Science? Health? Style? Interviews? That’s a little taste of the 23 main options available.

Click on sport and there are 115 separate videos, environment 94, travel 90. These can then be broken into smaller categories, business breaks down into: Dealbook, CNBC, Green Inc and Your Money. Arts: Music, Movies, Urban Eye etc. It is clear that the NYT take this part of their web operation very seriously.

Comparing it to The Times in the UK where if you click on their sport link there is a choice of 8 videos, there’s no need for a sub-section as all the videos are there in front of you. I’m sure there’s more on offer but I just can’t see a link with ‘MORE’ on it. Click latest video and of the eight on display six are on the same topic. Two even use the same thumbnail.

If the Times in the UK dedicated the effort their namesake in New York did it would be marvellous because all those sport videos would be about football instead of baseball.